Disclaimer: Oh, um… it's yours. There's one in 6 billion chance I'm right.

Chapter 4: What's said is said…

Water was everywhere. Sarah had gulped desperately for air, but ended up choking instead. It was horrible, her arms felt useless because she already exhausted her muscles lifting herself into that hole and her legs seemed not to help at all. They just thrashed around wildly as if cutting through the water and not helping her go up.

It was a scary moment, as she watched the surface drift higher and higher away from her and she realized she was going to die.

And it truly seemed that way…

That is,

Until her toes hit something hard.

The bottom!

With what little air she had left she braced herself against the bottom and leapt upwards.

Her body slipped through the depths and her brain was pulsating as a countdown until she was going to run out of air.

It was the hardest swim she had to do as she saw the light from underneath the blurry waves.

But she was doing it, and a second after her lungs gave up sunlight kissed her face.

"Waahack..akk..!"

Air! Oh-glorious air! Oh she wanted it! She gulped it up like the finest, most delicious, most wondrous…something…that she really needed.

As oxygen began to return to her brain she registered what had happened and looked up at the space in the wall she had slipped out of. It was at least twenty feet up and dust was innocently floating out of it in mockery of her troubles.

Suddenly very tired Sarah turned around and swam quietly to the nearby bank. It got rapidly shallow and she was able to trudge at least half the wa-

"Aww, crap. My bag…"

Yes, it was lost. She faintly recalled yelling out as she fell, and since she was carrying it in her teeth, that proved to be a problem.

She felt her face morph into a grimace. Turning around, she gazed over the water which still rippled from her disturbance. She really didn't want to go back in. She needed a second to sit down first.

Yes, she would do that. Sit down. Get rested and go back for the bag.

Yes, sit down. Rest up. Yes. She would do that.

Yes, just for a moment and then go back in.

She turned back around and her bag was floating five inches from her face.

"Whack! Holy…"

Only, it wasn't floating. It was attached to an arm. An arm with burgundy leather gloves and a gaudy, sliver, stone encrusted bracelet that wrapped around his whole forearm.

Attached to the arm was an equally outlandish form pulling a Jesus-eske stunt of standing confidently on the surface, with flauntingly dry, knee high boots.

Oh lord…

"Having problems?"

His tone was welcoming and concerned, but the victorious smirk on his face was about enough to make her want to give him a good dunk headfirst.

"Hello Jareth."

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She was grateful he saved her bag for her, but that didn't save the fact she was reallllly hoping to avoid him this trip. Besides, now wasn't a good time. The material of her skirt seemed…to…to… subtract when it was wet. She kept tugging at it hoping he wouldn't notice.

"So Sarah… To what do I owe this little visit? Things were perhaps…left unfinished…yesterday?"

He was swaying around her as she was attempting to make a fire. She wasn't exactly prepared to have this chat with him yet. He was right, things were left unfinished… it's just…

"No, I'm not here for that. I'm here of course to….' Something occurred to her. 'Wait, you don't know why I'm here?"

His eyes seemed to lose their humor.

"No, obviously, I wouldn't have asked otherwise."

"So you had nothing to do with the trouble my friends are in?"

His eyes seemed to absorb every word.

"Your friends?!" He growled and indignantly spun around. Mr. Mood swings…

"What do you care about that hodgepodge of imbeciles and miscreants anyway?"

"Hodgepodge?"

"Answer me, Sarah. Are they really why you're here?!"

This really seemed to bother him. Sarah decided on her words carefully. Setting her task aside for the moment, she walked over to face him while he had turned around from her.

"They sent me a message asking for help. It didn't say much, but it was obvious they wanted me to come here again. They had opened the portal where you had let me in."

"Sarah, it's always open for you."

"No, wait, really? No, it hurt. It sucked me in like a vacuum and oh, have you seen a dog with a saddle around?"

He raised a sophisticated eyebrow to that.

"Err… nevermind. Anyway, yes, I'm here to help them however I can. I just have had a sort of rough start, but if it's not anything you've done…well, that's helpful to know. Except now I don't know anything."

"Your friends didn't leave you any sort of clue? Nothing in that message?"

"No, it was only two words and there was this sort of mist that prevented me from looking around."

"A miiist you say?" He did a little side step and pulled her closer to him interest obviously now piqued.

"Yeah, it was really thick and turned into some kind of grey goo…"

As she said this his face broke out into that same victorious grin, just more hostel this time. He reminded her of a predator who's finally cornered his prey.

He then began laughing.

"It was something I've done, Sarah. Not to bring you here, I was going to do that later, but to catch those traitorous friends of yours…"

He said the word 'friends' like it left a foul taste in his mouth.

"And nooow… I know where they are."

"WHAT?!"

"The sniveling cowards ran from me. Hid. I didn't know how they could've possibly escaped my crystals, but now I do. I just over-estimated their intelligence a bit."

"What do you mean?"

"That mist is legendary of the Hob Forest.' He tilted his head and looked at her sideways. 'one of the most lethal places in my kingdom. The one place I can't get a clear picture from my crystals because it is so foggy. I would've thought of it before, except I didn't believe them to be quite that foolish. Ha ha!"

"Leave them alone Jareth. The fight you want is with me."

He slowly straightened and flowed in closer to her. She could feel his breath on her lips.

"Do you think that is what I want Sarah? A fight?"

"No, I think I know what you want."

"Do you?"

"Yeah I do, you've said it before."

"But, I never said anything…"

"No, not said, it was a song so you sang it."

He smirked in response. "Clever girl, so what was it that I wanted?"

She matched his smirk. She wasn't sure this was actually the direction the conversation should be going, but she needed to keep his mind off her friends, especially now they were in deeper trouble because of her.

"Well...Me."

His grin widened- she knew she made the correct answer.

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Chapter 5: Worst name for a bird...ever… ( I know I said that would be chapter four. I'm sorry I lied. )

Thanks everybody!